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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gabrielle Canon (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

White House will not overrule $15 minimum wage decision despite progressives' plea – as it happened

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, talks to reporters at the White House in Washington DC Monday.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, talks to reporters at the White House in Washington DC Monday. Photograph: Oliver Contreras/EPA

What's happened today

Wrapping up here on the west coast. Here’s what happened this afternoon and evening:

  • A third accuser has come forward alleging sexual harassment from the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, as more join in calling for his resignation.
  • Trump quietly received a vaccine in January, along with his wife Melania, but it wasn’t publicized until now.
  • Miguel Cardona, a former public school teacher and the first Latino to serve as education commissioner for the state of Connecticut was confirmed as the next US education secretary.
  • Democrats are planning to reintroduce a voting rights bill hoping new support from the White House will push it through.
  • President Biden virtually met with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to discuss migration, Covid, and other priorities.

Thanks for reading along! Hope you all have a great night.

Updated

A third woman has come forward to accuse the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, of sexual harassment, amid calls for his resignation.

The New York Times reports that Anna Ruch joined two former aids and offered details of Cuomo’s behavior.

From the NYT:

Mr. Cuomo put his hand on Ms. Ruch’s bare lower back, she said in an interview on Monday.

When she removed his hand with her own, Ms. Ruch recalled, the governor remarked that she seemed “aggressive” and placed his hands on her cheeks. He asked if he could kiss her, loudly enough for a friend standing nearby to hear. Ms. Ruch was bewildered by the entreaty, she said, and pulled away as the governor drew closer.

“I was so confused and shocked and embarrassed,” said Ms. Ruch, whose recollection was corroborated by the friend, contemporaneous text messages and photographs from the event. “I turned my head away and didn’t have words in that moment.”

Cuomo released a statement apologizing for past behavior Sunday night, calling the actions “misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation” and adding, “to the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that” but has not responded to the new allegations.

On Monday, the Guardian’s Miranda Bryan reports, a group of former legislative employees joined Republican and Democrat lawmakers in denouncing the apology and called for him to step down or be removed from office:

Members of the Sexual Harassment Working Group also said they expected more allegations to follow – and accused Cuomo of “gaslighting” his accusers.

Letitia James, the state attorney general, meanwhile, announced the first step in mounting an external investigation of the governor’s behaviour.

Updated

The World Health Organization is now officially advising against the use of hydroxychloroquine, a drug promoted by the Trump administration as a Covid treatment, ABC News reports.

A panel of experts said Monday that there was “high certainty evidence” that the anti-inflammatory drug typically used to battle malaria, didn’t stop Covid deaths or hospitalizations but actually increases the problems for patients.

Trump once called the drug a “game-changer” citing no evidence, even as Dr Anthony Fauci said it was ineffective. Even after the Food and Drug Administration revoked an emergency authorization, the former president retweeted a video full of misinformation about the virus and the importance of wearing masks. “I happen to believe in it” he said in response.

Updated

The former president Donald Trump and the former first lady Melania Trump have both been vaccinated, according to an unnamed advisor who shared the news with reporters Monday.

While other officials, including President Biden, Vice-president Harris, and the former vice-president Mike Pence, chose to get their shots publicly to encourage confidence in the vaccines, the Trumps opted to quietly get vaccinated while still at the White House in January, the source said. There was no detail on which shot they received or how many doses they had been given.

The revelation first came to light after Trump took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida. “Everyone should go get your shot,” he told the audience, prompting questions from reporters about whether he’d had his.

The speech was the first time Trump has told supporters – who include groups that are the most skeptical of the vaccine – to get their shots. According to Axios, white Republicans have shown more uncertainty than any other demographic group.

Still, the former president has not hesitated to take credit for the rollout. “Never let them forget this was us. We did this,” he said at CPAC.

His claim contradicts reporting from January, that showed Biden had to start from scratch when he took office and that there was no vaccine distribution plan left behind by the Trump administration. From CNN:

In the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

Updated

Miguel Cardona confirmed to lead US education department

The Senate has voted 64-33 to confirm Miguel Cardona to serve as education secretary, who will now be charged with the difficult job of navigating how to reopen schools during the Covid crisis.

“At this moment of crisis, Dr. Cardona is exactly the leader we need at the Department of Education,” said the senator Patty Murray, chairwoman of the Senate education committee to the Washington Post. “He has the experience, principles and perspective that we need in this critical role.”

During his confirmation hearing he said classroom safety would be his top priority as secretary. He is also expected to help Biden achieve his goal to open most elementary schools within his first 100 days.

“I recognize the frustration and distrust and fear that is out there and if confirmed as secretary of education, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that our rollout strategy for reopening schools includes communication on how to safely reopen schools,” said Cardona to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in February.

Cardona was a public school teacher and a principal before becoming the first Latino to serve as education commissioner in Connecticut.

Updated

Democrats are gearing up for a new battle over voting rights, but this time, with the backing of the White House. In a statement issued Monday, the Biden administration threw its weight behind the For the People Act, which would make Election Day a federal holiday, give more power to the justice department to reinforce voting rights, and increase vote by mail opportunities.

“In the wake of an unprecedented assault on our democracy, a never before seen effort to ignore, undermine, and undo the will of the people, and a newly aggressive attack on voting rights taking place right now all across the country, this landmark legislation is urgently needed to protect the right to vote and the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen American democracy,” President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.

The election reform bill could be put to a vote as soon as this week, and is expected to pass in the House. The narrow majority in the Senate may make things a bit more difficult. In order to get the bill through, all 50 members of the Democratic caucus would have to be on board, along with 10 Republicans. The GOP has claimed that the expanded voting rights would increase fraud and step on states’ rights.

And, though Biden supports the legislation, he isn’t going to ditch the filibuster to help Democrats get a win.

“The president’s view on the filibuster is well known. He has not changed that point of view,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday. “The president is committed to protecting the fundamental right to vote and making it easier for all eligible Americans to vote. His campaign was about fighting for democracy, and we’re going to continue to fight for democracy in the White House.”

Updated

President Biden is meeting virtually with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador today, with migration and the coronavirus pandemic at the top of the agenda.

Amlo has been clear about his intentions to propose a new “Bracero” style labor program to the new US President, which could enable between 600,000 and 800,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants to work within the US. The idea isn’t a new one.

Starting in the second world war, Mexicans helped shore up labor shortages in the US, and López Obrador would like to see the program reinstated, expanding opportunities for both agricultural workers and those in other sectors.

The Associated Press reports:

A senior Biden administration official declined to say whether the U.S. president would back or oppose the proposal, saying only that both countries agree on the need to expand legal pathways for migration. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations. Asked about the Mexican president’s proposal. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that reinstituting the Bracero program would require action by Congress.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports, the Biden administration is not expected to offer Covid vaccines to Mexico, but the president told pool reporters that it might be discussed.

“The administration’s focus is on ensuring that every American is vaccinated. And once we accomplish that objective we’re happy to discuss further steps,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a White House news conference.

Updated

Keith Gill, who is perhaps better known as “Roaring Kitty” after he helped spur a surge in GameStop’s stock price on Reddit, is no longer a registered broker with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Reuters reports.

Gill, whose posted YouTube videos on investing under the name Roaring Kitty and became a central figure on r/Wallstreetbets under the name DeepFuckingValue, helped send the struggling video game retailer’s stocks up more than 1,000% in two weeks.

In a proposed class-action suit filed in Massachusetts federal court against Gill in February, he was accused of misrepresenting himself and manipulating the market to his own benefit.

“Gill’s deceitful and manipulative conduct not only violated numerous industry regulations and rules, but also various securities laws by undermining the integrity of the market for GameStop shares,” the suit said. “He caused enormous losses not only to those who bought option contracts, but also to those who fell for Gill’s act and bought GameStop stock during the market frenzy at greatly inflated prices.”

He has not yet responded to requests from Reuters for comment but the news organization said “his online broker profile now flags the pending litigation, as well as an ongoing investigation by Massachusetts financial regulators”.

If you missed the news, here’s the background from Guardian reporter Edward Helmore:

Small investors bonded together on the Reddit forum, spurred on by members with names such as Roaring Kitty, to take on some of Wall Street’s biggest investors who they believed had made a bad bet on the company collapsing.

The professional investors had “shorted” GameStop – a bet its price will collapse – along with other companies that have since soared including the cinema chain AMC and BlackBerry.

Incredibly, the WallStreetBets crowd won the round, forcing some out of the trade and causing consternation and fears of an electronic financial insurgency on Wall Street.

Updated

Even as Covid continues to spread across the country, states have begun easing the restrictions put in place to curb the disease, the Associated Press reports:

Massachusetts on Monday made it much easier to grab dinner and a show. In Missouri, where individual communities get to make the rules, the two biggest metropolitan areas — St. Louis and Kansas City — are relaxing some measures. Iowa’s governor recently lifted mask requirements and limits on the number of people allowed in bars and restaurants, while the town of Lawrence, home to the University of Kansas, now lets establishments stay open until midnight.

Maps from the New York Times show most states are “mostly open” for business and few remain under stay-at-home orders.

With the US approaching the one-year mark for when the fast-spreading coronavirus first prompted lockdowns, roughly 28.4 million cases and 511,893 deaths have been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Monday, 25.5 million people have been fully vaccinated, and roughly 50.7 million have had at least one shot.

Updated

Georgia House passes bill that will make it harder to vote

Gabrielle Canon here, signing on from the west coast for the afternoon. Before I jump in, here’s an important update from my colleague Sam Levine:

The Georgia house of representatives passed a major bill with new sweeping voting restrictions on Monday that limits ballot drop boxes and early voting, and requires voters to provide identification information when they vote by mail.

The measure, which passed on a party line vote of 97-72, comes months after the state saw record turnout that helped Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win stunning upsets in two US Senate races and Joe Biden carry the presidential vote. The measure, one of several that would restrict voting in Georgia, is a thinly veiled effort to make it harder to cast a ballot for minority voters, voting advocates say.

One of the most notable provisions in the law would cut back significantly on the amount of weekend early voting in the state.

It would allow county officials to offer just one additional day of weekend early voting in addition to the one on Saturday that’s required by law. Counties can currently offer up to four days of early voting and many have noted that Sundays ahead of an election are traditionally popular dates for early voting among Black voters as churches use “Souls to the Polls” efforts to encourage voters to cast a ballot. It would also require election officials to reject provisional ballots entirely that are cast in the wrong precinct and shorten the runoff election period from nine weeks until just four.

The measure also shortens the window voters have to cast an absentee ballot and requires them to present ID information when they request a ballot and when they turn it in. The measure also places new limits on ballot drop boxes, restricting where election officials can place them and the hours they can be accessible to the public.

During a two hour debate on Monday, Barry Fleming, the bill’s sponsor, and fellow Republicans defended the measure as commonsense changes needed to restore confidence in elections. State officials, including Georgia’s top election official, a Republican, have said repeatedly there was no evidence of fraud.

“House Bill 531 is designed to bring back the confidence of our voters back into our election system. A main component of that effort is by enacting several revisions which will make the administration of elections easier by our local election officials,” Fleming said.

The legislation would only allow officials to have ballot drop boxes inside early voting locations and only operational during early voting hours.

Several Republicans also pointed for the need to have uniform election processes across the state.

But several Democrats said that was weak justification for a measure that would make it harder to vote. They noted that the current bill leaves room for neighboring counties to offer different weekend early voting days, which was likely to cause confusion.

“It’s pathetically obvious to anyone paying attention that when Trump lost the November election and Georgia flipped control of the US Senate to Democrats – shortly after, Republicans got the message that they were in a political death spiral,” said state representative Renitta Shannon, a Democrat. “And now they’re doing anything they can to silence the voices of black and brown voters specifically because they largely powered these wins.”

The bill now moves to the Georgia senate.

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Gabrielle Canon, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The White House said Joe Biden does not intend to overrule the Senate parliamentarian on including a $15 minimum wage provision in the coronavirus relief package. The parliamentarian announced Thursday that the minimum wage proposal does not meet the requirements to be passed using reconciliation, but a group of House progressives has called on Biden to overrule that decision by having Vice-President Kamala Harris, the leader of the Senate, allow for the provision’s inclusion in the relief bill. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said moments ago, “That is not an action that we intend to take.”
  • The Senate will take up the coronavirus relief bill “this week,” majority leader Chuck Schumer announced. “The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week,” the Democratic leader said this afternoon. “I expect a hearty debate and some late nights.”
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of a potential “fourth surge” in coronavirus cases. The CDC director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, voiced concern about a recent uptick in cases during today’s briefing from the White House coronavirus response team. “At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said. “We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country.”
  • The secretary of homeland security accused the Trump administration of having “dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety”. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the DHS is working to “replace the cruelty of the past administration with an orderly, humane and safe immigration process”. “It is hard, and it will take time, but rest assured: it will get done,” Mayorkas told reporters at the White House press briefing.
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing mounting calls for his resignation, after he was accused of sexual harassment by two women. Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, who previously clashed with Cuomo over his administration’s failure to disclose the full extent of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes, said today, “He should be issuing a genuine apology and thinking about resigning as soon as possible.”

Gabrielle will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

New York Assemblyman Ron Kim criticized Andrew Cuomo’s apology after the Democratic governor was accused of sexual harassment by two women.

Kim said Cuomo’s apology failed to address the impact of his actions on the two women who have come forward, Charlotte Bennett and Lindsey Boylan.

“That is not an apology,” Kim said. “He should be issuing a genuine apology and thinking about resigning as soon as possible.”

Kim said last month that Cuomo threatened to “destroy” him, after the Democratic legislator raised concerns about the governor’s team failing to disclose the full extent of coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes.

Cuomo faces mounting calls for his resignation

The Guardian’s Miranda Bryant reports from New York:

A collective of former New York state legislative employees on Monday denounced Andrew Cuomo’s apology for his past behaviour, after the governor was accused of sexually harassing two women, and called for his removal or resignation.

Members of the Sexual Harassment Working Group also said they expected more allegations to follow – and accused Cuomo of “gaslighting” his accusers.

New York attorney general Letitia James, meanwhile, announced the first step in mounting an external investigation of the governor’s behaviour.

Cuomo, the son of a former governor and himself a former US housing secretary, is one of America’s most prominent governors. On Sunday he acknowledged for the first time that some of his behaviour towards women “may have been insensitive or too personal”. He also said he would cooperate with an investigation led by the state attorney general.

“I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation,” said the Democrat, amid growing criticism from his own party. “To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”

Sonceria Ann Berry was sworn in as the secretary of the Senate this afternoon, making her the first African American to serve in the role.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer noted it was fitting that Berry was sworn in today, as African American History Month was ending and Women’s History Month is beginning.

Senate will take up coronavirus relief bill 'this week', Schumer says

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer just announced that the chamber will take up the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package later this week.

“The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week. I expect a hearty debate and some late nights,” the Democratic leader said.

The announcement comes two days after the House passed its version of the relief package, in a vote of 219-212.

The Senate version of the relief bill is not expected to include the $15 minimum wage provision, after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the proposal did not meet the requirements for passage via reconciliation.

If the Senate passes a version of the bill without the minimum wage provision, the package will need to be sent back to the House for final passage.

Joe Biden has said he wants to sign the relief bill by March 14, when extended unemployment benefits are currently set to expire.

Updated

The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to unveil new sanctions against Russia over the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

CNN reports:

The rollout of the sanctions will happen in coordination with the European Union, the officials said. The measures and the exact timing will be fleshed out by US and EU officials in the coming days.

These sanctions would be the first costs imposed on Russia by the Biden administration and will set the tone for their policy towards Moscow going forward. They would mark a clear departure from the approach of the Trump administration, which declined to impose penalties over the poisoning and shied away from directly confronting Russia over its nefarious actions.

The Biden administration is seeking to send a ‘strong message’ on human rights and the importance of acting alongside allies with these sanctions, and there are plans to tackle a broader set of challenges posed by Russia in the coming weeks, [two administration] officials said.

Last month, a Moscow court sentenced Navalny to two years and eight months in a prison colony, sparking protests across Russia and international condemnation.

Warren proposes ultra-millionaire tax on wealthiest households

Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill to impose a tax on the wealthiest US households, which was a key part of her presidential campaign last year.

If Warren’s bill became law, it would impose a 2% annual tax on those with a net worth above $50 million. For those with a net worth above $1 billion, the annual tax would increase to 3%.

According to Warren’s Senate office, the measure could bring in $3 trillion in revenue over 10 years, without increasing taxes for 99.95% of Americans.

“A wealth tax is popular among voters on both sides for good reason: because they understand the system is rigged to benefit the wealthy and large corporations,” Warren said in a statement.

“I’m confident lawmakers will catch up to the overwhelming majority of Americans who are demanding more fairness, more change, and who believe it’s time for a wealth tax.”

The legislation is co-sponsored by seven of Warren’s Senate colleagues, including Bernie Sanders, and it was introduced in the House by Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Brendan Boyle.

Asked about Warren’s proposal this afternoon, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Joe Biden supports increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but she did not explicitly endorse the bill.

Donald and Melania Trump received their coronavirus vaccines before leaving the White House in January, according to the New York Times.

The report comes a day after the former president said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, “Everybody go get your shot.”

It’s worth noting that the then-president chose not to receive his vaccine on camera, which might have boosted confidence in the vaccines among his supporters.

A number of senior officials, including then-Vice-President Mike Pence, received their vaccinations on live television in order to encourage Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they are able to.

The words Rudy Giuliani and YouTube don’t typically spring to mind as belonging in the same sentence together, but here we go.

YouTube reports it has suspended Giuliani for the second time in two months after the former New York City mayor, and lawyer-cum-super-loyalist to Donald Trmp lied again in videos that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump and therefore that Joe Biden’s presidency is fraudulent.

It’s getting hot in here. Giuliani in the Republican National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 19 November 2020.
It’s getting hot in here. Giuliani in the Republican National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 19 November 2020. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Giuliani, who sought, spectacularly unsuccessfully, to overturn November’s election results via legal action, will not be allowed to upload new videos for two weeks. YouTube also cited Giuliani’s promotion of nicotine, in explaining its action, Bloomberg News reports.

“We removed content from the Rudy W. Giuliani channel for violating our sale of regulated goods policy, which prohibits content facilitating the use of nicotine, and our presidential election integrity policy,” a YouTube spokeswoman says in a statement. “Additionally, in accordance with our long standing strikes system, we issued a strike against the Rudy W. Giuliani channel, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming.”

Bloomberg adds that:

YouTube’s strikes system revokes a user’s uploading privileges for two weeks if they violate the company’s content policies for the second time within a 90-day period. If Giuliani runs afoul of the video site’s rules again in the same timespan, his channel will be permanently shut down. The former mayor was previously suspended in January for election misinformation, and YouTube temporarily prevented him from making money from ads that run with his videos.

The former politician has accused YouTube of bias against conservatives and also posts his videos to the website Rumble, which has looser content-moderation policies.

Democrats have backed down for their plan to use the $1.9tr coronavirus relief bill as a vehicle to phase in increases to the minimum wage to $15 an hour without Republicans backing it - but efforts to address the issue in Congress haven’t died.

Reuters reports:

Democrats and some Republicans have voiced support for the idea of raising the minimum wage, now $7.25, for the first time since 2009, though they disagree on how much.

Republican Senators Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton last week proposed an increase to $10 per hour, but said employers should also verify the wage is going to workers who are legally in the US.

But two Senate Democrats acknowledged that passing an increase would be challenging in the 50-50 chamber.

The House of Representatives narrowly approved the Covid-19 package, one of Biden’s top priorities, and aim to pass it through the Senate through a maneuver known as “reconciliation,” which would allow the bill to pass with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes normally required by that chamber’s rules.

Senate Democrats over the weekend gave up on the Plan B idea trying to pass the wage hike by adding tax penalties to the Covid-19 bill [as not feasible] and some moderate Democrats think $15 is too high, suggesting $11 instead.

“We worked through the weekend and it became clear that finalizing ‘plan B’ with the caucus would delay passage and risk going over the jobless benefits cliff on March 14,” one source said.

Democrats want the Covid-19 bill signed into law by March 14, when enhanced unemployment benefits expire.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, voiced hope that a wage hike would still happen.
“Senator Sanders is determined to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and he is looking at all available strategies to make it happen,” a source close to Sanders said.

The Senate’s number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, said lawmakers should look for another venue to raise the minimum wage, but that it will be a challenge.

“If it takes some 60 votes or a supermajority of some kind, it’s going to be very difficult, obviously,” Durbin told reporters.

Another Democrat, Senator Richard Blumenthal, said he was optimistic the Democrats would find a way to raise the wage, “even though we may not have the votes right now.”

The coronavirus measure would pay for vaccines and send a new round of aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments.

The U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Monument are reflected in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool as people enjoy the weather outdoors on the National Mall on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021.
The U.S. Capitol Building and the Washington Monument are reflected in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool as people enjoy the weather outdoors on the National Mall on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/REX/Shutterstock

Garland edges closer to confirmation

Joe Biden’s choice as attorney general, Merrick Garland, has taken an important step closer to confirmation a little earlier, when the Senate judiciary committee voted in favor of his nomination, with a strong element of bipartisan support.

The federal appellate judge’s nomination will now come before the full senate for a vote on his confirmation. The vote was 15 in favor, seven against. Republicans, including Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and John Cornyn of Texas voted to support Garland.

Democrats hope that Garland will now be confirmed some time this week.

Merrick Garland testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be U.S. Attorney General on Capitol Hill last week.
Merrick Garland testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be U.S. Attorney General on Capitol Hill last week. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Reuters further reports that:

Garland was nominated to lead a Justice Department now in the midst of intensive investigations into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Republican Donald Trump’s supporters - an incident Garland has called “heinous.”

Today so far

The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The White House said Joe Biden does not intend to overrule the Senate parliamentarian on including a $15 minimum wage provision in the coronavirus relief package. The parliamentarian announced Thursday that the minimum wage proposal does not meet the requirements to be passed using reconciliation, but a group of House progressives has called on Biden to overrule that decision by having Vice-President Kamala Harris, the leader of the Senate, allow for the provision’s inclusion in the relief bill. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said moments ago, “That is not an action that we intend to take.”
  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of a potential “fourth surge” in coronavirus cases. The CDC director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, voiced concern about a recent uptick in cases during today’s briefing from the White House coronavirus response team. “At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said. “We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country.”
  • The secretary of homeland security accused the Trump administration of having “dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety”. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the DHS is working to “replace the cruelty of the past administration with an orderly, humane and safe immigration process”. “It is hard, and it will take time, but rest assured: it will get done,” Mayorkas told reporters at the White House press briefing.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not provide clarity on how Joe Biden intends to increase the minimum wage.

Psaki has said Biden does not plan to overrule the Senate parliamentarian, who has said the $15 minimum wage provision does not meet the requirements to be passed using reconciliation.

Given that ruling, the minimum wage proposal cannot be included in the coronavirus relief bill, but Biden has not indicated how (or when) he otherwise intends to increase the minimum wage.

Psaki simply said that Biden remains committed to raising the minimum wage to help working Americans.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to respond to Donald Trump’s attacks against Joe Biden during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday.

“We’re going to spend more of our time communicating our agenda for the American people than responding to criticism from the former president,” Psaki said.

The White House has consistently avoided commenting on Trump since Biden took office, saying they are focusing on advancing the president’s coronavirus relief package and the rest of his agenda.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether Joe Biden would consider sharing the US coronavirus vaccine supply with Mexico.

“No,” Psaki replied, saying the president is prioritizing the vaccination of Americans right now.

The question comes hours before Biden is scheduled to virtually meet with the president of Mexico, who is expected to raise the issue of vaccine-sharing as well.

White House says it does not intend to overrule Senate parliamentarian

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling that the $15 minimum wage provision did not meet the requirements for passage by reconciliation.

A group of House progressives has called on Joe Biden to overrule the Senate parliamentarian by having Vice-President Kamala Harris, the leader of the Senate, approve the inclusion of the minimum wage provision in the coronavirus relief package.

Psaki said having Harris overrule the parliamentarian is “not a simple decision,” and she noted the president and the vice-president both “respect the history of the Senate”.

“That is not an action that we intend to take,” Psaki said.

The press secretary reiterated Biden’s commitment to raising the minimum wage, which would require a separate bill if it is not included in the relief package.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has taken over the briefing, and she was asked about Joe Biden’s decision not to sanction the Saudi crown prince over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Psaki defended the decision, claiming the administration had “recalibrated the relationship” with Saudi Arabia to ensure such violence does not happen again.

The press secretary said the president does “reserve the right to take any action” against the Saudi crown prince in the future, but she noted that past administrations have not typically sanctioned leaders of nations with which the US has diplomatic relations.

Alejandro Mayorkas was asked whether he would allow reporters access to the temporary detention facilities for migrant children in Texas.

A reporter noted that the department of homeland security has so far rejected media organizations’ requests to access those facilities, citing the need to limit the risk of coronavirus spread.

“I’m happy to take a look at that,” Mayorkas said, adding that he would need to check with fellow DHS officials about why the request was rejected.

The DHS secretary said he was committed to providing “openness and transparency” during his tenure, and he said that principle would apply to the media.

Mayorkas also noted he was once a journalism student, but he said he “wasn’t a good enough writer to make it the whole way”.

Alejandro Mayorkas was asked by a reporter whether he believes there is a “crisis” at the US-Mexican border.

“The answer is no,” the DHS secretary replied.

Mayorkas acknowledged that there are challenges at the border, but he expressed confidence in his department’s ability to handle those challenges.

Alejandro Mayorkas took issue with the idea that the Biden administration’s handling of migrant children is similar to that of the Trump administration.

The DHS secretary noted that the Trump administration expelled migrant children from the US, which the Biden administration is not doing.

The Biden White House has received criticism on the right and the left for reopening a detention center for migrant children that was used under the Trump administration.

Alejandro Mayorkas offered some updates on the Biden administration’s task force to reunite migrant families who were separated as a result of Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies.

Mayorkas announced that Michelle Brané will serve as the executive director of the task force. “She is an extraordinary talent that will bring justice,” the DHS secretary said.

Mayorkas added that the administration will “explore lawful pathways” to allow separated families to be reunited in the US, if they want to do so.

Alejandro Mayorkas said the department of homeland security is working on processing those in the “Remain in Mexico” program that was implemented during Donald Trump’s presidency.

The DHS secretary emphasized that this is not the time for migrants to attempt to enter the US.

“They need to wait,” Mayorkas said. “It takes time to rebuild the system from scratch.”

Mayorkas noted that those who attempt to enter the US may be returned to Mexico in order to observe guidelines on limiting the spread of coronavirus.

Trump 'dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety,' DHS secretary says

The daily White House press briefing is underway, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, is speaking to reporters in the briefing room.

Mayorkas, who was confirmed by the Senate last month, said the department of homeland security will “replace the cruelty of the past administration with an orderly, humane and safe immigration process”.

The cabinet secretary accused the Trump administration of having “dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety”.

Mayorkas pledged to rebuild that system, saying, “It is hard, and it will take time, but rest assured: it will get done.”

Jeff Zients acknowledged that coronavirus vaccine scheduling remains “too frustrating” for “far too many people” in the US.

The White House coronavirus response team coordinator said the Biden administration is committed to helping states improve their scheduling systems, but he made no mention of a possible national scheduling portal.

The coronavirus response team’s press briefing has now concluded.

Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, announced the country distributed an average of 1.7 million doses a day over the past week.

Zients said vaccine distribution has rebounded after last month’s winter storm, which impacted deliveries across the central US.

According to Bloomberg, about 2.4 million vaccine doses were administered in the US yesterday.

Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus response team, said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be delivered “as early as tomorrow”.

According to Zients, Johnson & Johnson is ready to distribute 3.9 million vaccine doses over the coming days.

But Zients added, “J&J has indicated that the supply will be limited for the next couple of weeks.”

Johnson & Johnson is expected to deliver 16 million additional doses by the end of March, but the White House coronavirus response team has warned governors that those deliveries will occur “predominantly in the back half of the month”.

Zients assured Americans that the federal government is ready to deliver the vaccine as soon as doses become available, saying, “We’ve done the planning. We have the distribution channels in place.”

CDC director warns of potential 'fourth surge' in coronavirus cases

The White House coronavirus response team is now holding a briefing to provide an update on case numbers and vaccine distribution.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that a recent uptick in coronavirus cases indicates another surge of cases could occur before a majority of the country is vaccinated.

“At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said.

“Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of Covid-19 in our communities, not when we are so close. We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country.”

Updated

The White House has released a video, featuring Dr Anthony Fauci, that encourages Americans to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“I would definitely take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” Fauci says in the video. “This is a vaccine that works, and it only requires one dose.”

The Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Saturday, making it the third vaccine to be approved for distribution in the US.

While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, it has a couple distinct advantages. Namely, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be administered in one dose, rather than two, and it can be stored in a regular refrigerator, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The White House has signaled that Joe Biden will not attempt to overrule the Senate parliamentarian on including the minimum wage provision in the coronavirus relief bill.

“President Biden is disappointed in this outcome, as he proposed having the $15 minimum wage as part of the American Rescue Plan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Thursday.

“He respects the parliamentarian’s decision and the Senate’s process. He will work with leaders in Congress to determine the best path forward because no one in this country should work full time and live in poverty.”

Psaki added that Biden was urging Congress to pass the coronavirus relief package as quickly as possible, indicating he believed Democrats should try to pass the $15 minimum wage proposal in a separate bill.

But unless Democrats eliminate the Senate filibuster, they will need to attract the support of 10 Senate Republicans to pass such a bill, which seems very unlikely.

House progressives urge Biden to overrule parliamentarian on $15 minimum wage

A group of progressive House members has sent a letter to Joe Biden, urging the president to overrule the Senate parliamentarian on including a $15 minimum wage increase in the coronavirus relief package.

The House members argued that Vice-President Kamala Harris, as the leader of the Senate, has the authority to make a final decision on whether the minimum wage provision is allowed to be included in a bill being passed using reconciliation.

The letter comes four days after the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that the minimum wage proposal did not meet the strict budgetary requirements attached to reconciliation bills.

“Eighty-one million people cast their ballots to elect you on a platform that called for a $15 minimum wage,” the progressives told Biden in their letter.

“We urge you to keep that promise and call on the Presiding Officer of the Senate to refute the Senate Parliamentarian’s advice on a Byrd Rule point of order and maintain the $15 minimum wage provision in the American Rescue Plan.”

The letter is signed by Representatives Ro Khanna, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush, as well as 20 other lawmakers.

Khanna added in a statement, “We’ve been asked, politely but firmly, to compromise on nearly all of our principles & goals. Not this time. If we don’t overrule the Senate parliamentarian, we are condoning poverty wages for millions of Americans.”

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to jail

A court has found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced the former French president to three years in prison with two of them suspended.

France’s president from 2007 to 2012 was accused of forging a “corruption pact” with his lawyer and a senior magistrate. Judges said there was “serious evidence” of collaboration between the three men to break the law.

The court had heard how Sarkozy instructed his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to offer the magistrate a cushy job on the Côte d’Azur in return for information on a separate investigation centred on the rightwing politician.

It is unlikely the former president will spend a day in jail. The one-year prison sentence can be served with certain conditions, including the wearing of an electronic bracelet, or limited home confinement.

Sarkozy is expected to appeal against the conviction.

The verdict, delivered on Monday afternoon, will quash his hopes of returning to public life in time for next year’s presidential election. His centre-right Les Républicains party has been struggling to come up with a credible candidate since Sarkozy’s former prime minister François Fillon was engulfed in scandal during the 2017 presidential race, opening the way for Emmanuel Macron to win.

Donald Trump used his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday to once again lie about the results of the 2020 presidential election and attack Joe Biden’s agenda.

But the former president spent almost no time addressing the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that the House passed this weekend, NBC News notes:

‘The Democrats now say we have to pass their $1.9 trillion boondoggle to open schools, but a very small part of it has to do with that,’ [Trump] said. ‘You know where it’s going — it’s going to bailout badly-run Democrat cities, so much of it.’

That’s it. In almost 90 minutes of remarks, Trump devoted just two sentences of criticism to Biden’s first legislative priority as president.

And it says a lot about the state of GOP opposition to the Covid relief bill, which remains popular in polls: While House Republicans uniformly voted against it on Saturday, it hasn’t been an animating issue for Republicans.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, will hold her daily briefing for reporters in about three hours.

Psaki said Alejandro Mayorkas, the new secretary of homeland security, would also attend the briefing, ahead of Joe Biden’s virtual meeting with the president of Mexico this afternoon.

Mayorkas, who was confirmed by the Senate last month, is the first immigrant and the first Latino American to lead the department of homeland security.

Mayorkas has pledged to reform America’s “broken immigration system” and enforce immigration laws “in a way that is humane, respects due process, and strengthens our nation and its economy”.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Joe Biden is scheduled to virtually meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador today, marking the first official meeting between the neighboring leaders.

The AP has more details on the agenda of the meeting:

Mexico’s president has said he intends during the meeting to propose to Biden a new Bracero-style immigrant labor program that could bring 600,000 to 800,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants a year to work legally in the United States.

A senior Biden administration official declined to say whether the U.S. president would back or oppose the proposal, saying only that both countries agree on the need to expand legal pathways for migration. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The original Bracero program allowed Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States to fill labor shortages during World War II and for a couple of decades after the war. López Obrador said the U.S. economy needs Mexican workers because of ‘their strength, their youth.’

The Biden official said the meeting will enable Biden begin to institutionalize the relationship with Mexico, rather than let it be determined by tweets — a preferred form of diplomacy by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

The blog will have more updates on that meeting and the other news of the day coming up, so stay tuned.

The US supreme court will hear a case tomorrow that could allow the court’s conservative majority to deal a major blow to the most powerful remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 law designed to prevent racial discrimination in voting.

The case, Brnovich v Democratic National Committee, involves a dispute over two Arizona measures. One is a 2016 law that bans anyone other than a close family member or caregiver from collecting absentee ballots, sometimes called ballot harvesting. The second is a measure that requires officials to reject ballots cast in the wrong precinct, even if the voter has cast a vote in statewide races.

Arizona rejected more than 38,335 ballots cast in the wrong precinct between 2008 and 2016 and minority voters were twice as likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected, the DNC noted in its brief. Minority voters, including the state’s Native American population, are disproportionately harmed by the ballot collection ban because they are more likely to lack reliable mail service.

The DNC argues that the policies violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting laws that discriminate based on race. A trial court ruled in 2018 that the policies did not violate the law, and a three-judge panel on the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit later upheld that ruling. But the full circuit voted to rehear the case and last year found that the policies did violate the Voting Rights Act. Now, Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich, a Republican, and the Arizona Republican party are appealing that ruling to the US supreme court.

And though the facts in the case are about Arizona, the stakes could extend far beyond it. Brnovich and the Arizona Republican party are urging the court to use the case as a vehicle for announcing a narrower view of section 2 than the one currently in use.

Such a ruling would take away one of most powerful tools that voting rights groups have to challenge discriminatory voting laws. Section 2 was elevated after the supreme court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v Holder that struck down another Voting Rights Act provision requiring certain places with a history of voting discrimination, including Arizona, to submit voting laws to the federal government for pre-clearance before they went into effect.

Read more of Sam Levine’s report: US supreme court could deal blow to provision protecting minority voters

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine to roll-out to Americans within 48 hours

Americans should be able to receive Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine within the next 24 to 48 hours, its chief executive said this morning after regulators approved the vaccine, making it the country’s third available one for the coronavirus, report Reuters.

The drugmaker was still on track to deliver 4 million vaccine doses this week, and 100 million doses by June, CEO Alex Gorsky told NBC News’ Today program in an interview.

“Within the next 24 to 28 hours, Americans should start receiving shots in arms. They’re literally rolling out with the trucks as we speak,” he said.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have FDA-approved two-dose vaccines. Unlike those vaccines, the Johnson &Johnson’s version requires no refrigeration and only a single dose is needed, potentially facilitating wider use.

A former digital strategist for Barack Obama has demanded an end to big tech’s profit-driven optimization of outrage and called for regulators to curb online disinformation and division.

Michael Slaby – author of a new book, For All the People: Redeeming the Broken Promises of Modern Media and Reclaiming Our Civic Life – described tech giants Facebook and Google as “two gorillas” crushing the very creativity needed to combat conspiracy theories spread by former US president Donald Trump and others.

“The systems are not broken,” Slaby, 43, told the Guardian by phone from his home in Rhinebeck, New York. “They are working exactly as they were designed for the benefit of their designers. They can be designed differently. We can express and encourage a different set of public values about the public goods that we need from our public sphere.”

Slaby believes Facebook and Twitter were too slow to remove Trump from their platforms. “This is where I think they hide behind arguments like the first amendment,” he said. “The first amendment is about government suppression of speech; it doesn’t have anything to do with your access to Facebook.

Slaby calls for a combination of moral leadership, public advocacy, engagement by politicians, new regulatory frameworks and collective action by users to rein in a few private companies that currently wield massive influence over the public sphere.

Read more of David Smith’s interview with Michael Slaby here here: Optimizing for outrage – ex-Obama digital chief urges curbs on big tech

Calls for a boycott of Goya beans, chickpeas and other foodstuffs have grown louder after chief executive Robert Unanue made a series of false claims about the presidential election in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida on Sunday.

Robert Unanue, owner of Goya Foods, addresses CPAC.
Robert Unanue, owner of Goya Foods, addresses CPAC. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Unanue has previously courted controversy with praise for Donald Trump, which last year prompted Ivanka Trump to pose, infamously, with a can of Goya beans.

Onstage in Orlando, Unanue called Donald Trump “the real, legitimate and still actual president of the United States”.

He also falsely claimed the presidential election that Trump lost conclusively to Joe Biden and the state contest in Georgia, which Biden won narrowly, were “not legitimate”, and claimed mail-in ballots were fraudulent.

“We still have faith,” Unanue said, “that the majority of the people of the United States voted for the president … I think a great majority of the people in the United States voted for President Trump, and even a few Democrats.”

Biden won more than 81m votes, or 51.3% of the total cast, to more than 74m for Trump. The Democrat won the electoral college 306-232, a margin Trump called a landslide when it was in his favour over Hillary Clinton.

Last night president Joe Biden tweeted out his support of Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama who are attempting to get union recognition, saying that “Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union.”

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union president Stuart Appelbaum issued a statement of thanks for the president’s support last night, saying:

Thank you, president Biden, for sending a clear message of support for the BAmazon Union workers in Alabama seeking to bring the first union to an Amazon warehouse with the RWDSU. As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions. And that is why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama.

The retail giant has been heavily criticised for heavy-handed tactics in an attempt to sway workers to vote no to union representation.

Across California, hundreds of thousands of people armed with signs and clipboards are gathering outside of local Walmarts, in shopping center parking lots, and on beachside boardwalks, trying to convince their neighbors that the governor needs to go.

An effort to recall Gavin Newsom has gained momentum in recent weeks, as the California governor’s approval ratings dipped amid mounting frustration over how the state has handled the Covid pandemic, and the economic slump caused by closures.

So far, the campaign appears on track to get the signatures they need by a deadline of 17 March. If their efforts succeed, a recall election could be held before the end of the year.

“We knew this was going to be big. We didn’t know it was going to be this big” said Randy Economy, a spokesperson and political adviser for the RecallGavin2020 campaign.

It’s still extremely unlikely that a majority of Californians would choose to oust Newsom. State records show almost every California governor since 1960 has faced recall efforts, but only one – Gray Davis in 2003 – has been successfully removed. Newsom, who defeated his Republican opponent by 24 points in 2018, has largely retained enough support from the Democratic base needed to keep him in power, despite the challenges of 2020.

Though his popularity has waned in recent months, analysts say the success of the recall movement is more of a reflection of a political polarization in the state that has widened during the pandemic and the 2020 election. The campaign has catered to conservative Californians who feel unheard by the Democratic supermajority who run the state, and the recall has gained traction and resources from a small but vocal but Republican electorate.

By early February, the effort had raised more than $2.5m according to financial disclosures filed with the State, and Rescue California, the organization created to remove Gray Davis from office in 2003 has been a major contributor. The recall has also been bankrolled the former Arkansas governor and ardent Trump supporter Mike Huckabee’s political action committee, and the California Republican party. There was also a contribution of $500,000 from a company called Prov. 3:9 LLC, which triggered a “dark money” complaint by the former chair of the Federal Election Commission over accusations that the organization is a shell company to disguise donors.

Read more of Gabrielle Canon’s report: Push to recall California governor Gavin Newsom gains steam – but who’s behind it?

One thing that was widely expected with Joe Biden taking control of the White House was a return to pre-Trump norms. That hasn’t happened in all cases – and one of those is the way that the public can track who has visited or spoken to the president. Anita Kumar writes for Politico:

Five weeks into office, Biden has fallen short of his former boss, Barack Obama, in several areas, and is under pressure to do more to restore confidence in the federal government following Trump’s chaotic term in the White House.

Among the critiques: The schedules for the president and vice president aren’t posted online. The White House comment line is shut down. There are no citizen petitions on the White House’s website. The White House has committed to releasing visitor logs. But it doesn’t plan to divulge the names of attendees of virtual meetings, which are the primary mode of interaction until the coronavirus pandemic eases.

And while Biden has received kudos for keeping the American public informed, primarily by resuming the daily White House press briefings, he has yet to hold a news conference of his own.

“The steps they’ve taken are welcome, but insufficient to the moment and the need,” said Alex Howard, an open government advocate who directs the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Educational Fund, an arm of a left-leaning group. “They need to keep ‘showing their work’ by opening Cabinet meetings, disclosing information and using political capital to emphasize that being ‘open by default’ isn’t just an option but an obligation across the government.”

Read more here: Politico – Biden won’t release White House visitor logs

David Sirota writes for us today on that minimum wage issue:

When a Republican is president, Democratic politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency is an all-powerful office that can do anything it wants. When a Democrat is president, these same politicians, pundits and activists will tell you that the presidency has no power to do anything. In fact, they will tell you a Democratic president cannot even use the bully pulpit and other forms of pressure to try to shift the votes of senators in his own party.

A tale from history proves this latter myth is complete garbage – and that tale is newly relevant in today’s supercharged debate over a $15 minimum wage.

In that debate so far, we have seen Democratic senators prepare to surrender the $15 minimum wage their party promised by insisting they are powerless in the face of a non-binding advisory opinion of a parliamentarian they can ignore or fire.

That explanation is patently ridiculous and factually false, so Democratic apologists are starting to further justify the surrender by suggesting that even if the party kept a $15 minimum wage in the Covid relief bill, conservative Democrats such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema would block it anyway.

The White House itself is now falling back on the idea that it doesn’t have the votes to do much of anything, insinuating that Joe Biden – who occupies the world’s most powerful office – somehow has no power to try to change the legislative dynamic. And this spin is being predictably amplified across social media.

To be sure, there is no guarantee that Manchin or Sinema could be moved. Maybe they couldn’t, but maybe they could, considering they have both previously supported bills to increase the minimum wage. And we know they may be sensitive to pressure. After all, Manchin recently freaked out and whined that “no one called me” when vice president Kamala Harris dared to do one straightforward interview with a West Virginia television station.

Whether such would pressure works, the point is indisputable: it is laughable and preposterous to argue that a newly elected president has zero power to even try to shift the dynamic.

Read more here: David Sirota – Joe Biden says his hands are tied on a $15 minimum wage. That’s not true

There’s a solid group of Democrats who thing the way forward for the minimum wage policy is to overturn the decision of the Senate parliamentarian, and there is a #Keep15In movement rapidly forming. They are planning a digital meeting at 9am EST today (that’s 1400 GMT).

Reps Ro Khanna, Rashida Tlaib and Andy Level Levin will be joining a women of color-led coalition who have set up the event, which will call on the Biden-Harris administration to disregard the Senate parliamentarian advisory opinion and press ahead.

The members of Congress will be unveiling a public letter signed by around 20 additional members of Congress they have organized to call on the administration to proceed in this manner. This is on top of a letter of petition signed by 150,000 people asking the White House “to do what it takes to pass the Raise the Wage Act”. The letter opens:

We are women of color, people of color, women, low-wage workers and organizations that represent and support them. We are writing to urge you to use the full power of your office to bring essential financial relief to all working people in America, by ensuring that a $15 federal minimum wage is included in the budget reconciliation process, regardless of the opinion of the parliamentarian.

As president of the Senate, vice president Harris has the constitutional power to disregard the recommendation of the Senate parliamentarian and include this provision in the Covid relief legislation.

The vast bipartisan majority of Americans support this policy. President Biden simply must rise up for the communities who turned out in record numbers to elect him and support the vice president in taking this action on behalf of his administration.

Jeff Stein reports overnight for the Washington Post on the news that senior Democrat lawmakers appear to have abandoned a potential “plan B” for getting a $15 per hour minimum federal wage through the Senate in its existing form. Last week the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that its inclusion in the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion Covid recovery plan breached Senate procedure. Stein writes:

Last week Senate finance chair Ron Wyden and Senate budget chair Bernie Sanders said they would instead seek to add tax penalties on large corporations that fail to pay $15 an hour — an idea viewed as less likely to be struck down by the parliamentarian and still helpful to some minimum-wage workers.

But now senior Democrats — including Wyden and Sanders — are walking away from that backup effort. Economists and tax experts have said that the tax outlined by Sanders and Wyden could be easily avoided and difficult to implement, with large corporations able to reclassify workers as contractors to avoid potential penalties. “I would be extremely nervous about trying out a brand new idea like this with virtually no vetting,” Jason Furman, a former Obama administration economist, said on Friday.

Wyden and Sanders were also expected to face an uphill battle in persuading the entire Senate Democratic caucus to support a proposal they would have only days to draft. The White House has not indicated support for the corporate tax penalty idea.

The Covid relief package has been passed by the House, but is yet to go through the Senate, who, according to the parliamentarian’s ruling, will have to strip out the provision on the minimum wage increase. The level has been set at $7.25 since 2009. The White House has indicated it is unwilling to go against the parliamentarian’s ruling.

Read more here: Washington Post – Senior Democrats abandon backup plan on $15 minimum wage

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics on Monday, the day after Donald Trump made a return to public life with his talk at CPAC. Here’s a catch up on where we are, and what we might expect from today…

  • Democrats remain divided over how to proceed on the $15 minimum wage issue – some senior lawmakers appear to have given a backup plan to increase the minimum wage through a corporate tax penalty.
  • Progressive Democrats however plan a #Keep15In event today, designed to pressure the Biden-Harris administration to disregard the Senate parliamentarian’s advisory ruling and keep the measure in the Covid relief package, as it was passed in the House.
  • The White House has defended its decision not to directly sanction Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as criticism grew before Washington’s unveiling of a new policy towards Riyadh today.
  • Twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump used his speech at the rightwing CPAC event to propagate the lie of a “rigged” 2020 election and hinted at 2024 run.
  • Grasping for continued relevance, Trump returned to his political comfort zone by fearmongering about immigrants and unleashing angry tirades against Joe Biden, his Republican critics and the media.
  • Despite the teasing of another run to the White House, Louisiana Republican senator Bill Cassidy predicted that Trump will not be the party’s nominee for president in 2024, pointing to the number of seats lost by Republicans in the House and Senate over the four years Trump was in office.
  • The Hyatt Hotels Corporation called symbols of hate “abhorrent” on Sunday after the design of a stage at CPAC at one of its hotels drew comparisons to a Norse rune used by Nazis during the second world war.
  • The crisis enveloping New York governor Andrew Cuomo deepened as the state’s attorney general demanded he grant her the authority to investigate claims he sexually harassed at least two women who worked for him. The governor admitted his behaviour may have been “misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation” and offered a qualified apology.
  • Joe Biden will return to Washington DC from Delaware this morning. At 4.30 EST (2130 GMT) he will meet virtually with president Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico
  • Also today, Jen Psaki delivers her press briefing at noon, and the coronavirus response team will brief the media at 1pm.
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